Salient » Liam Powellhttp://salient.org.nz
Tue, 28 Nov 2017 21:43:59 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.18“Education is so important”: The battle for Academic Vice-Presidenthttp://salient.org.nz/2017/10/education-is-so-important-the-battle-for-academic-vice-president/
http://salient.org.nz/2017/10/education-is-so-important-the-battle-for-academic-vice-president/#commentsSun, 08 Oct 2017 20:00:52 +0000http://salient.org.nz/?p=48754The Academic Vice-President (AVP) heads the Education Team and is responsible, alongside the President, for the strategic direction of student representation on campus. They also have a key role in ensuring the university provides quality teaching and learning across all levels of study. This year, there are two candidates for the AVP role: Simran Rughani and Hassan Tariq.

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Simran Rughani is in her second year at VUW, studying Marketing, Environmental Studies, and Geography. She is running for AVP because she wants “to help other people love learning as much as [she does].”

Hassan Tariq is completing a PhD in computer science. He moved to New Zealand for further study, having worked as a university lecturer in Pakistan. Through that role, Hassan has had extensive experience advocating for students rights, including making changes to examination conditions, class schedules, and the provision of extracurricular activities for students.

Simran wants to increase the presence of students in VUW decision making, and improve transparency in assessment processes. One of her “major issues” is to make students aware of the exam review rights available to them.

“There needs to be consistency, so that students know when and how they can exercise their rights to review.”

She also wants to increase representation of Māori and Pasifika students “in all areas of academic life.” By increasing the number of delegates on each faculty board, she hopes that would “mean Māori and Pasifika students could apply for and get those roles.”

When asked about how this would remedy the current process, Simran was “not too sure” what the current process was, but would look into it.

For Hassan, the AVP role would allow him to critique existing VUW structures, to make them more beneficial for students.

“I think there’s a huge communication gap between the VUW administration and incoming students. A lot of the time, these students aren’t aware of their rights, or are afraid to speak out.”

“There are a number of administrative jobs in each faculty which hold a lot of power […] I want to balance that power. There should be faculty-level committees to deal with this.”

When asked if, through the AVP role, he would be able to practically implement solutions to address the issues he’s identified, Hassan said that raising awareness was an integral part of making these changes.

“Initiating an objective is not so difficult; the continuation of that objective is much harder.”

“It may not happen instantly, but a voice now can become a voice for the future. If I can provide a starting point, and someone will listen to me and be inspired by my objective, that will be taken up and continued.”

Simran believes that students need the right to be involved in any academic decision that affects them, no matter the size. In a practical sense, this meant diversity in faculty representative groups, and partnership with VUW governance in course design and development.

She wants to review printing prices at VUW, to try and reduce the costs for students already struggling with other financial pressures.

“Students stress enough about assignments without having to pay to hand them in.”

For Simran, whoever is elected must be “representative” and “strong.”

“Education is so important. I think the role [of AVP] needs to focus on fostering student partnership, on increasing our voice.”

]]>http://salient.org.nz/2017/10/education-is-so-important-the-battle-for-academic-vice-president/feed/0Mike Joy Receives Critic and Conscience Awardhttp://salient.org.nz/2017/10/mike-joy-receives-critic-and-conscience-award/
http://salient.org.nz/2017/10/mike-joy-receives-critic-and-conscience-award/#commentsSun, 01 Oct 2017 20:00:59 +0000http://salient.org.nz/?p=48658Ecology academic Mike Joy has been named the recipient of the inaugural Critic and Conscience Award by Universities New Zealand.

Joy, a senior lecturer in ecology and environmental science at Massey University, received the award in recognition of his efforts to bring awareness to fresh water issues over the last two years.

His research has brought attention to the negative environmental impacts that intensive dairy farming has on New Zealand’s waterways; in a 2015 article, he estimated that the industry, through run-on effects like nutrient leaching and soil compaction, has caused “between NZ$2.1 and $15 billion” of damage on a national scale.

Joy has also been outspoken about the need to stop commercial whitebaiting, as four of the five native species that comprise whitebait (fish in their juvenile stage) are threatened and at risk of extinction.

“I spoke truth to power,” he told Salient. Joy expressed his anger towards large corporations and “politicised” government departments that “pull the wool over the eyes of the New Zealand public.”

When asked about his plans for the future, with regards to the $50,000 prize money he received with his award, Joy stated that he intended to carry on as before.

“I think there’s quite a strong negative relationship between getting awards and getting funding,” he observed, noting that those who speak out against government institutions are often denied research grants.

He warned of a culture of manipulation, where students saddled with debt move into jobs in which they are discouraged from speaking or thinking freely. According to Joy, this culture, combined with the politicisation of the public service, stifles thought and debate.

The Critic and Conscience award is designed to celebrate Academic Freedom, which is protected under the Education Act 1989. Joy believes the award is important in highlighting the role of criticism in academia. “When I start giving my colleagues who work in government and other places a hard time, I can say to them ‘It’s not personal, it’s my job to be a critic.’”

]]>http://salient.org.nz/2017/10/mike-joy-receives-critic-and-conscience-award/feed/0Sport and Politicshttp://salient.org.nz/2017/09/sport-and-politics/
http://salient.org.nz/2017/09/sport-and-politics/#commentsSun, 17 Sep 2017 20:50:47 +0000http://salient.org.nz/?p=48482The influential Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz famously observed that war is “a continuation of politics by any other means.” It is an equally compelling idea that competitive sport is a form of substitute warfare which allows groups to compete and savour victory without any meaningful risk. This creates a syllogism: if politics is a substitute for war, and sport is a substitute for war, then what’s the connection between politics and sport?

This year, I have found two new obsessions — New Zealand politics and professional ice hockey — and anyone (un)lucky enough to find themselves in an extended conversation with me will find that the topic will eventually steer towards one or the other. At first glance these things may seem to have nothing in common — what are the similarities between ten overpaid men chasing a rubber disc every other night and the real-life issues of poverty, homelessness, and the economy?

This year’s election, and each one before it, has been described as being a “contest” or “race” to a point that goes beyond cliché. Remember National’s now-slightly-infamous “Eminem ad”? Its key feature was a uniformly strong National-blue rowing team defeating a chaotic red/black/green rowing team. The message resounded well with the majority of voters who sided with National in the election, very likely because it played upon the idea that politics and sport are inextricably linked. The idea is simple: parties are rivals, with rivalling fanbases. Each undecided voter is a point to be scored. The media provides analysis and commentary that is often useful, but not always necessary. The list can go on.

Essentially, both politics and sport feature competition for a favourable evaluation. In politics, this evaluation comes from popular assent; in sport it is generally found on a scoreboard.

I deliberately made my definition of politics vague because, like sport, competition can occur at any level. Football, for example, does not maintain its global popularity solely through the World Cup and the Premier League; its appeal derives from how it can be played by almost anyone who wants to, in any space, with anything that can be kicked. Politics occurs any time a group has to make a decision, so every day people have the opportunity to act politically. In this regard, politics can be seen as the most widely-played sport in the world. While the vast majority of people will never write a letter to their MP, much less become one, this does not mean that they cannot argue for an idea (and thus be political) any less than a group of schoolkids can play soccer. Of course, there has to be a level of willingness to play, and the higher the level one plays at, the more resources and time are needed.

But at all levels, a favourable outcome can only come from the correct combination of strategy and star power.

No successful politician or sports team has ever entered a competition completely unprepared. A sound “game plan” is essential to any victory in either field. Both political and sports scientists have come to appreciate the role of statistics in understanding strategy, and raw data is just as appealing to amateur analysts. The fascination for batting averages and win/loss/draw ratios that sports fans can have is virtually identical to a political pundit’s love for poring over budget allocations and polling numbers.

Harder to quantify, but no less important, is the concept of star power. As comforting as it is to reassure ourselves that both politics and sport rely on collective decision-making and teamwork, certain individuals have the ability to change the outcome of a given scenario.

In 2016, the Edmonton Oilers (an until-then consistently mediocre Canadian ice hockey team) gave their captaincy to a 19-year old player named Connor McDavid. McDavid is probably the foremost ice hockey player in the world — he hasn’t earned the nickname “McJesus” for nothing — and his influence meant that the Oilers started to win more plays and games than they lost. Now the Oilers are contenders to top the National Hockey League this season, almost entirely thanks to McDavid.

Comparisons can easily be drawn to Jacinda Ardern’s single-handed reversal of the Labour Party’s fortunes over the last few weeks. Irrespective of whether she is lipstick on the Labour pig (to borrow a controversial Morganism) or whether she simply made already good policies more appealing to the electorate, Labour’s spectacular rise can only be attributed to Ardern, just as the Oilers’ can only be attributed to McDavid.

While high-level politics and sport can to some extent be reduced to raw data, people initially care about them because of the issues and conflicts that provide connection on an emotional level.

Take the underdog story. It is often the case that those in power will spend vast resources to remain there, so a great degree of schadenfreude can be gained when they are usurped. The most recent America’s Cup was an example of this. According to the New Zealand media and wider public, the competition could be summed up as follows: Despite the zealous backing of the sixth richest man in the world, the sinister (and American to boot) Team Oracle was soundly thrashed by a team of plucky New Zealanders armed with nothing but bicycle pedals and no. 8 wire. Their victory was all the more sweet because of the supposed unlikeliness of it.

Now consider a certain Mr Trump. Two years ago a Trump presidency was something in the fever dreams of satirists, and yet despite the efforts of both the Republican and then the Democratic party to defeat his candidacy, despite the condemnation from the mainstream media and from every sane person alive at the time, we are here. If one compares that story to that of Emirates Team New Zealand, it becomes far easier to understand how affirmed Trump and his supporters feel in their cause. This is because they feel that they are underdogs who have overcome adversity. The feeling that brings Trump supporters to his rallies even after the presidency has been won is the same feeling that brought New Zealanders to the streets for the Team New Zealand victory parade.

It may seem odd — if not taboo, when one considers the true underdogs of the American political system — to think of the cartoonishly rich Republican Trump as an underdog. While it is true that his campaign spent marginally less money per vote than Clinton’s, and that the mainstream media were (rightly so) consistently critical of him, Trump still had millions of dollars to spend and the norms of white male America in his favour. But as the inexorable rise of Trump has presciently shown those of us who look on in horror, the facts don’t actually matter — only feelings do. The point is that both he and his supporters feel like underdogs, and this gives them validation and a sense of righteousness.

In a similar way, Team New Zealand also enjoyed vast amounts of government and corporate funding — the full name of the syndicate is Emirates Team New Zealand for millions of green-backed reasons. But like the millions of angry white voters who flocked to Trump, New Zealanders found a connection (on nationality instead of race) with “our” sailors, and celebrated triumph over exaggerated adversity.

I go back to the earlier examples of Ardern and McDavid. While each is extraordinarily capable at what they do, in reality they are still small parts of much bigger movements. The individuals are performing alongside other players or candidates, and both the Edmonton Oilers and the New Zealand Labour Party have thousands of workers performing essential tasks that keep their organisations competitive. Despite this, these two individuals have allegedly redeemed their respective “teams” single-handedly, something which has earned them accolades and wider support for their organisations. Any way you look at it, people’s perceptions seem to matter more in both politics and sport than any reality.

The sole difference between sport and politics is method. While sport seeks to determine who is physically skilled, politics is (supposedly) concerned with whoever has the best ideas. It is comforting to think that they can thus be separated, that the high passions of sport will never interfere with politics, and likewise the ruthless ideologies of politics will never affect sport. But this is not, never was, and never will be the case. Ideas are only relevant when they are put into action in the physical world — Marxism was for academics until the Bolsheviks stormed the Tsar’s palace. Likewise, physical actions aren’t really meaningful if they don’t represent an idea — as Clausewitz pointed out, when nations fight each other they do so to carry out their political will.

Accordingly, it is virtually impossible to separate politics from sport. In 1981, those who supported the Springbok tour did so on the grounds that politics should be left out of sport. But toleration of its segregated team still equated to toleration of Apartheid. It was fitting that South Africa’s sporting isolation became as instrumental to the end of apartheid as the economic sanctions placed upon it.

So what does this tell us? While it may make politics more appealing for sports fans and vice versa, it’s hard to see much application for this argument. But if we accept that people think about politics in the same way they think about sports, it could make it easier to understand how one’s political opponents think, instead of being preoccupied with what they think. This could be the key to engaging — and winning over — those who have been lost to bigotry and hate.

Earlier this year, a North Korean ice-hockey team played for the first time in New Zealand. Did any of them look out of their team bus window and see a better life? Did anybody see their bus to be pleasantly surprised to see that North Koreans enjoy sport as much as any New Zealander? Could this be the difference between peace and war?

]]>http://salient.org.nz/2017/09/sport-and-politics/feed/0We Have Power Campaignhttp://salient.org.nz/2017/08/we-have-power-campaign/
http://salient.org.nz/2017/08/we-have-power-campaign/#commentsSun, 06 Aug 2017 21:00:59 +0000http://salient.org.nz/?p=47919We Have Power, a nationwide student-led campaign, was launched by the New Zealand Union of Students’ Association (NZUSA) on August 7, with the aim of getting every New Zealand student to vote in the upcoming general election.

At least 15 tertiary institutions have agreed to participate in the initiative, with several more expected to join within the next month.

NZUSA will provide training and resources to campus teams based at each institution, although each campus team has control over its on-the-ground execution of the campaign. NZUSA President Jonathan Gee told Salientthat this is because “no one-size-fits-all approach has a hope of being successful.”

VUWSA plan to engage VUW students for the campaign by having volunteers operate at all VUW halls of residence and campuses, as well as in the CBD. VUWSA’s initial objective is to inspire political awareness among students through an online campaign, presenting briefly to students before lectures, and having one-on-one conversations, with the ultimate goal of a 100% student turnout for the election on September 23.

VUWSA President, Rory Lenihan-Ikin, told Salient that the campaign is based on “student-to-student engagement in political discussions.”

The campaign “is not endorsing a party or certain politicians, but rather wants to have meaningful conversations with students about why they should be engaging in the political process, regardless of who they end up voting for.”

Gee informed Salient that the campaign was inspired by the significant youth turnout in the last UK general election, as well as the “big organising” model of campaigning used in the recent US presidential primary elections.

New Zealand has seen a low youth voter turnout over the last few electoral cycles, with only 62.73% of enrolled voters aged 18–24 voting in the 2014 general election. Data from the Electoral Commission showed that as of June 30, only 64% of eligible voters in this age bracket are currently enrolled to vote.

Jonathan Gee toldSalientthat recent international elections, in conjunction with an appreciation of New Zealand’s current political climate, showed that there was a need for greater youth participation in politics.

“The system isn’t working for young people, and while it’s not our responsibility, we can’t wait around for that to change.”

]]>http://salient.org.nz/2017/08/we-have-power-campaign/feed/0Labour Announce Education Policyhttp://salient.org.nz/2017/07/labour-announce-education-policy/
http://salient.org.nz/2017/07/labour-announce-education-policy/#commentsSun, 30 Jul 2017 21:00:08 +0000http://salient.org.nz/?p=47806The Labour Party has confirmed three years of free tertiary education for all New Zealanders if elected to government, following the announcement of their education policy on July 21.

The policy, which targets all levels of education, will inject $4 billion into the sector over four years.

Early childhood education will receive increased funding and more qualified teachers. At the school level, the National Party’s controversial National Standards, which evaluate the performance of primary school students against their peers, are to be abolished.

NCEA is also to be re-evaluated, with Hipkins stating at the policy’s announcement that NCEA was not being used “as it was envisaged when [it] was introduced.”

“What was intended was an ‘exit-level’ qualification,” Hipkins told reporters. “So kids might do Level One or Level Two or Level Three. Now most kids are doing all three levels, and they’re doing a mix of internal and external assessment, which means that they’re basically spending most of their time either being assessed or preparing for assessments.”

“It’s just too much.”

Additionally, Labour intends to discourage school fees that masquerade as “donations” by giving $150 per student per year to schools that don’t ask parents for donations.

Despite the large cost, affordability at the individual level is the policy’s key theme. “Our ultimate goal is to get back to the principle of free education,” Labour’s education spokesperson Chris Hipkins told Salient.

However, the policy has been criticised by Finance Minister Steven Joyce as being an example of Labour “spending more and getting less.”

He also pointed out that it “is almost in every sense identical to their 2014” policy.

Labour’s intention is to streamline tertiary education to suit New Zealand’s small size and Labour Leader Andrew Little stated we need “tertiary institutions that drive excellence in teaching and research.”

Labour has pledged to review the Tertiary Education Commission, which serves to link government with universities, describing it as currently no more than a “bureaucratic box-ticking exercise.”

Hipkins described the Tertiary Education Commission as focusing on quantity of education and not quality. Despite being established by the Labour Government as a “strategic decision maker,” Hipkins said that “the truth is that it’s still very much a bums-on-seats model” that develops unnecessary competition.

The policy as a whole was described by Little as Labour “reaffirming” their commitment to a “world-class free education system that’s accessible to everyone.”

The purpose of the scholarships, which were announced on July 13, is to attract undergraduate students to the faculty’s new Bachelor of Health degree.

The Faculty expects to offer over 20 scholarships to both school leaver and mature students. The scholarships can be worth up to $5000 and may be held in conjunction with Victoria’s established Achiever and Excellence scholarships.

However, in order to minimise costs and maximise the number of scholarships awarded, the University has the ability to decrease the value of a Health scholarship by up to $4000 if a student already holds another school leaver scholarship.

According to Professor Gregor Coster, Dean of the Faculty of Health, the scholarships are a “strategic initiative” to mark the establishment of the degree and are only to be offered in 2018.

Applicants are primarily assessed on their academic records, but are also subject to “other criteria” such as the quality of their personal statement in their application.

Instruction for the Bachelor of Health degree is to begin in trimester one of next year.